Wednesday, September 23, 2015

CAREER CAPPER- 1970 BILL WHITE

Growing up with watching the Yankees on T.V., I was very familiar with former all-star first baseman Bill White, being that he was a longtime announcer on channel 11 here in the NYC area for games along with Phil Rizzuto.
As a matter of fact White would end up being a sort of fall-guy for all of Rizzuto's hilarious antics, which made for some really funny moments during the game.
Anyway, I always wanted to create a "Career Capper" for him in the 1970 set, just to have him creep into the 1970's.
So here you go:


White closed out a brilliant, if not shortened 13-year career in 1969, returning to the Cardinals, for whom he played between 1959 and 1965 and put together his best years as a big-league player.
In '69, he appeared in 49 games, hitting .211 with 12 hits over 57 official at-bats.
But when you take a good look at what he did over the eleven seasons that he played full-time, you see an excellent, consistent player who also played his position superbly.
At the plate White put together four 100-RBI seasons, reached 200 hits once (with two other 190+ hit years thrown in), clubbed 20+ homers seven times, topped .300 four times and scored 100+ runs once.
Defensively, all White did was take home seven consecutive Gold Glove Awards between 1960 to 1966, leading his league in fielding twice along the way as well.
Admittedly I didn't know any of this as a young kid watching Yankee games at first.
Wasn't until I was bestowed with my first MacMillan Encyclopedia around 1979 that I was able to soak it all in.
I just remember him as a somewhat reserved guy who'd crack a joke here and there while Rizzuto was running wild at the mouth with all of his anecdotes.

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